First time post here! Hope everyone is doing well in this New Year.
Like many, I’ve always loved Pokémon, played the games, watched the anime, opened cards etc. I got back into the TCG just before COVID when I saw what I thought was such a beautiful piece of artwork in the Neo Discovery Espeon. After rediscovering (no pun intended) the TCG and with the subsequent pandemic I was hooked on the hobby for a while! Eventually, life happened and Pokémon inevitably took a back seat.
I’m starting this discussion as very recently I had some Pokémon related content appear on my feed - it was someone exclaiming how great of a deal they’d found in a team-up booster pack for the low low price of £185. This stopped me in my tracks and had me checking if there was a typo, as I remember not even a few years back, picking up a couple of blisters of team-up for £10 each and thinking at the time that that was expensive. This ultimately led me down a rabbit hole seeing how extremely the market has changed in the span of a year.
I thought the boom in popularity post covid was understandable, but this feels unprecedented and in my opinion a bit nuts. On one hand, my personal collection has gone up in value, but I don’t really take much satisfaction from this as investment/financial gain was never my goal when returning to the hobby, I just collected cards I thought were cool/pretty. I can see that things like the digital app and shiny new sets along with a load of other factors have influenced this spike (we’ve all seen the scalpers scrapping it out for a box of prismatic for example lol), but never in my right mind could I have imagined a set which came out only a matter of years ago rising in price tenfold, and even outpacing some sealed vintage sets.
All this is to say, how do you all feel about this? And where do you see the hobby going? I understand this is multifaceted. Personally, I find it a bit disheartening to see the market shift from a more collector oriented one to a speculative one where cards have now become more synonymous with ROI and assets. Even fairly recent sets have had the price jacked up through the roof in the name of investment and artificial scarcity. I’ve seen people on that investment subreddit for example discussing cards which were >£10 a year or two ago (promo cards printed in abundance) blowing up over £100 and acting as if that is totally normal and obvious/to be expected. Crazy!
It is all pretty wild, but Ive learned to just ride the wave, and not worry about it. The more FOMO there is the worse it gets. It will all eventually work itself out, and if it sticks around longer than expected then Ill just wait, and wait. I have alot of other hobbies too, so I just tend to rotate when I see it getting out of hand.
I am beyond caring and only hope to sell off my collection at peak valuation before the hahbee caves in on itself. I’ve stopped buying cards, I’ve stopped watching youtube. My overall involvement has been reduced to hanging out with my E4 kebabs, appreciating the odd pokeman here and there while plotting my ever-delayed liquidation.
i reentered this space extremely recently after a ~20yr absence and aspects of it certainly seem unhinged. in some ways it feels like a terrible time to start collecting pokemon cards in earnest lol, lots of people are (very rightly) jaded about it and meanwhile i’m v excited and eager. i think there’s definitely some dissonance for my own experience.
however, as i don’t care about the world of modern beyond collecting a species that is in low demand and infrequently featured, and i don’t care about grades, i get to float above most of the controversies i limit my interaction with the world of pokemon to being on here; buying/trading ratty old cards, and having another avenue for artistic expression. i haven’t seen any footage of people scrapping for booster boxes lol because i try to be surgical in my internet exposure. like johto said, unplugging to any extent you can is probably helpful!!
I mean, I get what you´re saying, but that´s a bit too cynical for me. The hobby has definitely changed, and not all in a good way, but I doubt things are going to cave in.
A lot of the modern sets might, but then again, they might not. Sword & Shield was extremely popular, and these sets are now going strong for four years. Pokémon has just gotten a lot bigger, and I very much doubt they are going to give it away.
I would say (back to the topic), just enjoy it like it is. The plusses are that everything has more value, and the downsides are that sets are way too expensive right out the gate, but that will change once Pokémon starts catching up next year.
This as well. Avoid the noise. A lot of people on social platforms (not here) don´t know what they´re talking about, but if you pick out the right conversations/video´s, it´s not that much of a thing.
Recently, I’ve been going hard after Street Fighter cards, which is super niche. In the past 6 months, I have enjoyed collecting that so much more than Pokemon in all honesty. When I’m collecting Street Fighter, I’m having an awesome time filling out my 90s Fighting Game binder and once in awhile I’ll pick up a random slab of something that is extremely hard to find in good condition if it’s a reasonable price. I don’t ever think about ROI or “investing” when I’m working on my Street Fighter sets. Just collecting for the absolute fun of it and I really haven’t had the feeling with Pokemon since maybe my first few months into the hobby.
Comparing that to my time in Pokemon (since late 2020), I have found myself fixated on value and ROI like others have mentioned and it has significantly sapped my enthusiasm for collecting Pokemon. While I have a ton of cards in my collection just out of pure enjoyment, it is still easy for me to turn my attention to values and ROI. It has really opened my eyes on my collecting habits and motives and I am happy that I have taken a step back from Pokemon for a little while.
Shame to hear that. I understand it, but my advice would be to separate the two. A lot of people here act like it is only one or the other. Either the market is about making money, or it is about collecting. The trick is to just let it be both. Enjoy your cards, and enjoy the fact that they are worth money.
Exactly that…I never understood why so much people seem to have issue with this. Why is it a problem to collect something that is precious not only to you but to others as well. For me the fact that they have a monetary value on top of being something I want to collect is just an added bonus, not a hindrance. If any, it makes the whole hobby more interesting, because if it had no value you could just get any cards you want without having to make choices and compromises and that’s what the real fun is : having to make choices and compromises and not being able to get anything you want.
It’s been a lot easier now than in the past. Modern is dropping a good bit, I’ve been seeing more cards that I want for cheaper prices, I’ve seen more product in stores than ever and I’ve been seeing less people looking for cards.
Gets even better when you wake up at 3am in a cold sweat one dreary, fateful night in early 2025, a flurry of frightfully existential yet enlightening thoughts flooding into your head. You’re 33; you own mid-high 5 figures £ in Pokemon cards and products. Diversity of long term investment portfolio? But a not-insignificant percentage is entombed within a subset unintended for re-sale. To look at and attach emotion to. So you have convinced yourself, anyway. To what end? Fulfilment-seeking gone astray. One sunny, hazy day in Japan the the 1980s; under a tree lies a normal albeit creative man conceiving a children’s game. It’s printed on cardstock. Genuine organic childhood enjoyment and togetherness. 20 years later the light has faded yet the craving remains. No children nor glistening wedding ring; unrequited desires of intellectual and physical excellence. Wealth built but unshared with loved ones. Yet Pokemon equates with meaning, importance; fulfilment? You’re 65: there is no infantile laughter echoing through the hallways. It was forfeit, and it’s too late.
Indeed. We´re all humans right? We want things to be desirable, and then when they are desirable, we complain that they have become desirable? You can´t have your cake and eat it. There are downsides to the new market (scalpers), but that is life.
I’m glad that the new printer factories are a go for modern next year. I love collecting modern, but I won’t contribute to the scalpers that wish to benefit from the 30th anniversary this year. I’ll be back to collect the next gen sets that should have high level of supply that most of the gen 1ers that got back in the hobby will say suck.
Vintage is a different story. I’m pretty vintage is going to explode even more this year, for better or for worse. I’m trying to collect a bunch of diamond and pearl/hgss singles this year while they’re still not incredibly expensive.
i limit my interaction with the world of pokemon to being on here; buying/trading ratty old cards, and having another avenue for artistic expression. i haven’t seen any footage of people scrapping for booster boxes lol because i try to be surgical in my internet exposure. like johto said, unplugging to any extent you can is probably helpful!!
